What is it?
by FlOrangey
Summary: What is Christmas? When Rex asks, he finds everyone has a different answer.


As Rex stared at Dr. Holiday's lab he was absolutely convinced that he was missing something very important. Some of the soldier's and scientists were setting up decorations all around the facility, green and red decorations. The last time he saw decorations being hung up around the lab it was his birthday, but he was pretty sure that another full year hadn't passed. Which meant it was someone else's.

"Hey Doctor Holiday?" He asked as Holiday was putting lights on some kind of fake tree. Why was she putting lights on a fake tree? Because apparently they couldn't put a real tree in Providence, but why put one up at all? She looked at him stopping her work.

"What is it Rex?"

"What's going on here?" Rex asked looking around. "Why is everyone putting up decorations and everything? Is it someone's birthday or something?"

Holiday gave him a confused look before realizing that of course Rex would have no idea what is going on. "Oh right, you wouldn't remember anything about Christmas, would you." She said and Rex titled his head. Now it was his turn to be confused.

"Christmas?" He repeated.

"It's a...well, a holiday." Dr. Holiday told him and Rex chuckled for a moment.

"So what's it about?" He asked and Holiday stopped short crossing her arms deep in thought. Rex stared at her wondering if he probably said something wrong. "Holiday?" He repeated getting her attention.

"Sorry." She said, "But that answer would depend on who you talk to."

"Who I talk to? What's that supposed to mean?" Rex asked and Holiday sighed apparently not wanting to answer that question.

"Well, Christmas means different things to different people." She explained. "For some it has religious meaning, for others it means other things." Again Rex gave her a confused look, which was pretty much the reason why Holiday did not want to explain herself. "Look you'd be better off asking someone besides me. For me, Christmas is a family thing."

"Family thing?" Rex repeated.

"Every year my sister and I would go to visit family out of town," Holiday explained as she tossed one of the decorations over the tree trying to set it right on her own, though it looked like it needed another person, "but obviously I can't do that anymore so I thought that Providence could use some nice touch ups for the holidays… or at least it could if _someone would give me a hand over here_!"

Rex almost jumped as he heard Holiday yell at one of the scientists who seemed to be fascinated by what looked like a giant red furry rope-thing. The scientist himself jumped almost knocking the box of decorations over and rushed over to help Holiday. Seeming satisfied Holiday looked back at Rex, annoyed demeanor completely gone. "You should probably ask around; talk to Six, or Noah, and come to your own conclusions."

"Um… alright. Sure." Was all Rex could really say as he slowly made his way to the door… then quickly left the lab.

* * *

"You want to know about Christmas?" Six asked rather surprised that Rex was coming to him of all people to ask about it. Not only did Six not celebrate the holiday, but normally if Rex wanted to know something like this he would go to Holiday or Noah first, not him.

"Yeah. I spoke to Holiday," Well that explained why Rex was speaking to him and not her, "But she told me I'd be better off asking someone else about it because it means something different to everyone." Six' didn't say anything at first and Rex was starting to wonder if maybe he was asking the wrong person.

"She's right." The man finally said making his way over to his closet. "I'm assuming she mentioned for some people it's religious."

Rex would have nodded, but Six' back was turned to him. He instead leaned over so he could see what Six getting from the closet. The man pulled something out. It was a book.

He gave it to Rex who stared at it. "What's this?" He asked as he looked over the book. It was thin, but still large. Probably meant a lot of reading, which was the last thing that he wanted to do.

"They say that Christmas celebrates the birthday of Jesus Christ."

"Who?" Rex asked looking at Six who motioned to the book he just gave him. Reluctantly Rex opened it. He was surprised to find that there wasn't a lot of text. There was text, but there were also pictures; large hand painted pictures. He stopped on one that showed a woman – a very pretty woman – and a man, overlooking a small bed or crib with animals surrounding them. There was a baby in the bed – or the 'manger' as the book said.

"In Christianity, Jesus is the son of God, and the savior of mankind." Six explained, "Born of the Virgin Mary, he died for humanities sins – their evil – and was resurrected three days later, to allow believers of God to go to heaven." Rex let the words process before frowning and looking from the pictures to Six.

"So… he was a zombie?" Rex asked and Six' face remained neutral, except his eyebrows which moved inward.

"Not exactly." Was his answer and Rex stared at the picture before flipping it to see the image of another man, in robes surrounded by a crowd of people. He looked like he was talking to them, if Rex had to guess this man was probably this Jesus person. "Basically in the Christian religion Christmas is a religious holiday celebrating the birth of a savior."

"So they're celebrating the birthday of some guy that died a long time ago." Rex said raising an eyebrow. "Doesn't seem like a big deal."

"Trust me Rex, for some people it _is_ a big deal." He said his tone giving the slight hint of a warning telling Rex that he should probably keep a comment like that to himself. "You can hold on to that if you want, consider it an early Christmas gift."

Rex stared at the pictures in the book a bit longer before closing it. "Hey Six?"

"What?"

"How come you aren't helping Holiday and the others set up decorations and stuff?"

"Because I don't celebrate Christmas." He said and Rex gave him a confused look.

"Why not?" He asked.

"Just not my holiday." Six said before asking Rex to leave the room, which the teenager did.

* * *

"Oh that's an easy one." Bobo said as Rex finished reading the book that Six had given him. It was a nice story, one that Rex had trouble believing was actually true, but nice nonetheless. "It's about the gifts."

"Huh?"

"You know the shopping." Bobo said, "Rushing to the mall to get that last minute toy so that why you can make your kid happy, going through large crowds, beating the crap out of people so you can get that last toy on the shelf because you were stupid enough to wait until the last minute instead of getting your stuff ahead of time… it's fun to watch human's torment themselves."

Rex stared at Bobo not completely sure what to say until the monkey jumped down from his perch and grabbed Rex's hand. "Hey!" The monkey stuck a piece of paper into the teenager's hand. Rex looked at it; it looked like a list of stuff. "What's this?"

"That's what I want for Christmas." Bobo told him and pat him on the shoulder. "You got a ten days buddy. Better get on it."

* * *

It was snowing around where Noah lived, something that Rex wished he knew before he took off for his best friend's house. Thankfully the blond was willing to part with a spare jacket (but not a spare hat) and go with him to the mall. Rex had told him why he was going all of a sudden, something Noah was perplexed by. "I don't think you should listen to Bobo about anything involving Christmas." Noah told him as they walked down the street.

"Yeah I kinda got that feeling." Rex said. "So what exactly do you do for Christmas, Noah?"

"Not much." The blonde teenager said giving a shrug. "I got some stuff for some guys on the basketball team at school, but that's it. Christmas is usually just me and my mom."

"Nothing special?" Rex asked.

"Well, we went skiing in the mountains one time," Noah told him, "It was my first time. Rammed into a tree and broke my leg." Hearing this Rex laughed not stopping as Noah glared at him. "I was in a cast for eight weeks." More laughter, "its not funny Rex."

"Sorry." The taller of the two said trying his hardest to calm down. He eventually did and Noah's glare vanished from his face.

"Why are you asking anyway?" Noah asked him changing the subject back to Rex's sudden curiosity about the holiday.

"Just curious." Rex told him, "Holiday's decorating the lab with Christmas stuff so I'm trying to figure out what this whole thing's all about. Holiday said family, Six said it was religious – but he also said he doesn't celebrate it – and Bobo, well you know."

Hearing this Noah nodded and thought for a moment about how to give Rex a simple explanation. "Well they're all kinda right." Noah told him after a moment and Rex raised an eyebrow.

"So Christmas is about some dude dying and coming back as a zombie so people can beat each other up getting family members cheap stuff?" Rex said. Noah stopped in his steps looking like he had just walked into a pole. "What?"

"Rex, no." Was the only thing Noah said. "You're combining too many ideas together."

"Well everything keeps telling me something different, how am I supposed to know which one is right?" He said and Noah sighed shaking his head.

"Rex, everyone told you something different because Christmas is one of those Holiday's where it has many meanings." Noah told him. "Six is right, it's a religious holiday, but it's also a secular holiday. Holiday is right, it's to celebrate with family, but you can celebrate it with friends too. Bobo is…" He stopped thinking for a moment before continuing, "Well people do like it when you get them something meaningful."

"Well what is it for me?" Rex asked.

"I dunno." Noah told him, "Whatever you make of it."

"But I can't think of anything."

"You will. Just enjoy this year for what it is." Noah assured him. "Oh, that reminds me; I got something for you back home. I can give it to you when we get back from the mall."

Hearing this Rex groaned, "Great, now I feel bad because I don't have anything for you."

"That's alright." Noah said, "You don't need to get me anything. Just being my friend is enough." Rex gave a half smile, but it was pretty clear that the guy still felt pretty bad. "Hey, how about I help you find something for Holiday or Six? That make you feel better?"

"But I don't know what to get them." Rex said. Noah shrugged.

"That's okay, let's just look around and maybe you'll find something they might like."

* * *

Noah had been kind enough to show him how to wrap the presents he had gotten for Holiday and Six. Now he was walking down the hallway of Providence, them and the gift that Noah had given him in his hands. He reached the lab to find that Holiday was finishing up decorating the room. His jaw dropped as he saw the colors and the decorations completely hung up. Green and gold's were hanging on the ceiling or in between the railings and a large tree decorated with red, silver, and gold ornaments. The whole lab looked more colorful than it did when Holiday set it up for his birthday.

"Whoa!" Was the only thing he was able to say as he gazed at everything.

"Oh Rex," He looked over to see Holiday approach him. "I was thinking I would need to have Six fetch you from Noah." She said her tone joking as she looked down at what was in his hands. "What's this?"

"Oh, Noah said he got me something for Christmas." Rex said then added, "And I got something for you and Six too."

"My Rex that was very thoughtful." Holiday said taking the three packages from the teenager. "But you didn't have to. It's your first Christmas; you shouldn't have to worry about stuff like this."

"I know." Rex said, "But you guys do so much for me I figure, why not? I l mean you, Six, and Noah are the only family I have. Might as well do something that says 'thank you.'"

Holiday had a grin on her face. She made her closer to Rex until she was close to him. "That's sweet." She said and lifted her hand up to rub his hair. "But everything you do for us is enough."

"Hey!" Holiday let go of his hair and gave him a grin before going back to her work. Rex grumbled under his breath as he fixed his hair. But even though he was annoyed that his perfect hair style was ruined, he found himself to be happy.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

I'm sick, and I just finished finals. Decided to do something Christmasy before getting up the next chapter of _Repercussions, _since I can't think straight right now. Thought this would be cute. I seriously suck at writing Six' character, he's so reserved and low key that for me it's hard to get a good grip on him. Which sucks because I just got an idea for a story surrounding him, please excuse me I'm going to go cry in a corner. (Also I feel the need to point out that I think Six is Jewish... why I think this I have no idea.)

Anyway I hope you enjoyed this and enjoy the Holidays.


End file.
